


Eighteen

by CelesteFitzgerald



Series: JJbek Week 2017 [8]
Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, JJbekweek, M/M, jjbekweek2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 19:08:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11973813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CelesteFitzgerald/pseuds/CelesteFitzgerald
Summary: In a world where you switch bodies with your soulmate when the younger of the pair turns eighteen, everyone anticipates their eighteenth birthday. Otabek tries to get JJ to relax on the day before his eighteenth birthday, but JJ is too excited about finding out who his soulmate is - until he starts to realize that maybe he wants it to be someone specific.But life doesn't always work out as planned.





	Eighteen

**Author's Note:**

> JJBek Week 2017 Day 8—Prompt: Free Day
> 
> Ack. I was doing so well with keeping up with these prompts, and then it took me an extra week to finish the final day. Oh well, I got it done! Hooray for more soulmate AUs!

July 14th. It was just one day before JJ’s eighteenth birthday. And he was even more excitable than usual.

“JJ, you need to calm down,” Otabek said. The two has just finished training for the day, but JJ refused to get off the ice. He was too excited to sit still.

JJ skated over to the side of the rink where Otabek was sitting and not-so-gracefully slammed into the wall, leaning over the top. “But _Otabek_ , tomorrow could be the day!”

“I know.” Everyone knew the rules—on the eighteenth birthday of the younger of a pair of soulmates, the two switched bodies for a day. No scientific explanation existed, but at least it led to lots of interesting stories. If JJ happened to be younger than his soulmate, then he would wake up on his birthday in the body of someone else. And, as planned, Otabek would be there to explain everything to JJ’s soulmate and help them get in touch with each other.

“I’m so excited to meet them!”

“But if you’re older than them, you’ll have to keep waiting.”

“It’ll happen tomorrow, I can feel it!”

“I’m glad you’re excited, but don’t get your hopes up too high. I don’t want to see you upset. I care about you.”

A strange look came over JJ’s face at Otabek’s last sentence. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if my soulmate’s younger than me.”

“And then the day of the switch would be a surprise.”

JJ’s face lit up again. “Yeah! I love surprises!” He pushed away from the wall and resuming skating around wildly.

Otabek sighed and crossed his arms. “If you injure yourself out there, it’s your own fault.”

* * *

 

Otabek woke up early the next morning. He looked over at JJ’s bed on the other side of the room. He was still sleeping soundly—or was it JJ’s soulmate? Hopefully whoever it was would wake up soon.

As he thought, Otabek watched JJ sleep. His mouth was slightly open and his head was resting on his hand. Otabek smiled, then looked away when he realized he was staring. He got out of bed to start getting ready.

The noise caused JJ to wake up just as Otabek finished getting dressed. Otabek turned toward JJ’s bed and waited.

JJ yawned, sat up, and stretched. He blinked his eyes a few times and took in his surroundings. “Damn it, Otabek, I’m still here.”

Otabek laughed. “Happy birthday.”

JJ threw his pillow at him. He smiled. “Looks like I’ll be the old man in my relationship.”

Otabek walked over and sat next to JJ on the bed. He patted JJ’s knee in reassurance. “Looks like it.”

JJ looked away from Otabek with a hint of pink on his cheeks.

“Is something wrong?” Otabek asked.

“No! No, everything’s fine.” He bit his lip.

“I know you were really excited to meet your soulmate, but you’ll meet them eventually. And now the two of us can celebrate your birthday.”

JJ laughed nervously. “You know, I had actually started hoping that my soulmate was younger than me, anyway.”

“What? But you were so excited yesterday. What happened?”

JJ looked at his hands. “I started to think that…maybe I wanted my soulmate to be someone specific…someone who’s younger than me.”

“Who?”

“…I can’t tell you that. And what if he laughs at me when he finds out that I wanted it to be him?”

“You don’t have to tell him, it’s just me here.”

“…Yeah, that’s the problem.”

Otabek’s eyes widened.  “JJ?”

JJ kept staring at his hands.

“JJ, is it me?”

“Please don’t hate me.”

“JJ, look at me.”

JJ finally looked up. Their eyes met for a few seconds. Otabek slowly began inching his head forward, and JJ’s eyes widened at the action. Their lips were centimeters apart when JJ spoke.

“You’re leaving in two weeks.”

Otabek stopped moving. “Yeah.”

JJ moved his head away. “We’ll be thousands of miles away when you go back home.”

“…Yeah? Are you just now realizing this?”

“This was so dumb of me. I shouldn’t have said anything when you’re about to leave. Even if you did feel the same way, nothing could happen.”

Otabek put his hand on top of JJ’s. “But I do feel the same way. And why can’t anything happen?”

JJ let his hand stay there for a few seconds before pulling away. “I don’t want to start a relationship with someone who’s thousands of miles away. We can’t be together when we’re apart.”

“We could make it work. But…if you really don’t want to, I’ll respect that.”

JJ looked down. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry, too.” Otabek wrapped his arm around JJ’s shoulders, pulling him into an awkward side-hug. “We should get ready and go downstairs. We still have your birthday celebration ahead of us.”

JJ watched as Otabek walked over to the bathroom. “Happy birthday to me.”

* * *

 

It had been a little over a year since Otabek moved back to Kazakhstan. After JJ’s birthday and the most awkward two weeks they had ever experienced, they hadn’t talked much. As for whether they ever _thought_ about contacting the other—that was a different story.

With Otabek’s eighteenth birthday coming up in one day, JJ could barely even think about his recent win at Skate Canada. For the past year, he had tried so hard to push Otabek from his mind—even dating a fan named Isabella until she dumped him because his thoughts were “clearly elsewhere.” Yet he still had hopes that he would find himself waking up in Kazakhstan the next morning. It was crazy, he tried to tell himself; the chances of Otabek actually being his soulmate were less than slim.

He had been staring at his phone for the past ten minutes, debating whether he should call Otabek. Despite the awkward romantic tension between them, he missed being friends with Otabek. He missed doing something dumb just to watch Otabek roll his eyes but still smile anyway. He missed staying up late, talking from their opposite sides of the room until one of them fell asleep first. He missed Otabek. Did Otabek miss him?

After five more minutes of staring, JJ jumped when his phone rang. It was him. JJ’s thumb acted before his mind could stop it.

“Otabek.”

“JJ. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah…so, um…how are you?”

“JJ, we both know why I’m calling.”

JJ nodded, then remembered that Otabek couldn’t see him. “Yeah.”

“My birthday’s tomorrow.”

“Mm.”

JJ heard Otabek take a deep breath. “Whatever happens or doesn’t happen tomorrow, I just needed to tell you that I miss you. I know you don’t want a long-distance relationship, and that’s fine, but we haven’t said more than five words to each other in a year.”

JJ exhaled. “I miss you, too.”

“Can we try being friends again?”

“Yes, yes I’d love to.” JJ smiled. “I’ve been almost calling to ask you the same thing for months now.”

Otabek laughed. God, JJ missed that laugh. “Glad I wasn’t the only one.”

They kept talking for half an hour, surprised at how easy it was to talk to each other again. When they hung up, JJ felt more happy and optimistic than he had in a while. He fell asleep with a smile still on his face.

…

He woke up to the sound of his phone buzzing. His _own_ phone, in his own room. He opened the text.

 **Otabek:** I’m still me.

JJ’s hopes came crashing back down again.

* * *

 

“Can we talk?”

“Sure.”

It had been almost a year since Otabek’s eighteenth birthday. True to their word, they had managed to rebuild their friendship and had been texting, calling, and Skyping each other almost every day. JJ tried to tell himself that he was happy with the way things were—and for the most part, he was—but he really needed to talk to Otabek.

JJ continued. “So, we’re not soulmates.”

He could practically hear Otabek raising his eyebrow at him from the other side of the phone. “Really, I hadn’t noticed.” They had discussed this many times before, thinking about the possibilities. Most likely, both of them had soulmates that had yet to turn eighteen. But there was also the frightening possibility that they didn’t have soulmates. It wasn’t unheard of, and the thought had scared them. 

“Otabek, I’m being serious here.”

“I know, I’m sorry.”

“So. Not soulmates. But it’s been almost a year since you turned eighteen, and it’s been two years for me, and still neither of us has met our soulmate.”

“JJ, don’t worry, I’m sure you have a soulmate—”

“That’s not what I’m talking about right now. I keep waiting and waiting, but there’s always that thought in the back of my head saying ‘What are you waiting for? You already know what you want.’”

“I…don’t know what you mean.”

JJ sighed. “I know I said that I didn’t want to start up something with so much distance, but it’s been two years and this entire time I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you. I know everyone just _loves_ the idea of soulmates so much, and there are all those stories about people who aren’t soulmates getting married and having huge falling-outs because it ‘wasn’t meant to be,’ but this just feels right. _You_ feel right. I really like you Otabek, and I don’t care that we’re not soulmates. I don’t want the universe to tell me how I’m supposed to feel; I know how I feel and that’s all I care about.”

When he finished speaking, JJ was met with silence. “Please, Otabek, just say something.”

More silence. Then—“Okay.”

“W-what?”

“Okay. I like you too, JJ. If you’re willing to try this, then I am, too.”

“Really?” JJ had been preparing himself for the worst. This was too good to be true.

“Really.”

JJ hadn’t smiled so much in a long time.

* * *

 

JJ blinked his eyes open as the sunlight shone in through the windows. He reached his arms out, then smiled when his hands met Otabek. He pulled him closer. It had been a year and a half since they decided to try dating, and a few months since JJ moved to Kazakhstan to stay with Otabek. Screw the universe, if they ‘weren’t meant to be together,’ who was?

Otabek shifted, and JJ saw his eyelids begin to flutter open.

“Good morning,” JJ whispered.

Otabek’s eyes flew open and he shot up. “What the hell, bastard, what the fuck are you doing here?”

“Um, what—”

“How did you break into my house? Why are you in my bed?”

“Otabek? What’s wrong?”

Otabek stopped swearing for a moment and looked confusedly around the room. His eyes widened in shock, then fear, then—was that guilt? “Oh, fuck.”

“Otabek, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.”

He looked at JJ sadly. “Oh, god, why do I have to be the one to do this…I’m, um, not Otabek…”

“…No. No no no no no.” JJ couldn’t believe this. Things had been going so well. He was so happy. Why did Otabek’s soulmate have to show up? He felt a couple of tears drop onto his cheeks.

“I’m sorry, JJ.”

Wait. “You know my name?”

Otabek’s soulmate looked down. “Yeah—and if you could just forget that I ever fucking apologized to _you_ , that would be great.”

An awful thought occurred to JJ. He only knew one person who hated him that much and swore this often. “…Yuri?”

Otabek’s soulmate winced slightly. “Yeah.”

Of course it had to be him. Otabek’s best friend. JJ had seen the way Otabek’s eyes always lit up whenever he talked about Yuri. He had even been jealous for a while until Otabek had reassured him that JJ was the one he was in love with. But now Yuri was Otabek’s _soulmate_ , and JJ couldn’t believe that he was losing the love of his life. To _Yuri Plisetsky_. The tears fell harder.

Yuri seemed like he was trying to figure out what to say when JJ’s phone began ringing. He looked at the screen. It was Yuri—well, Otabek. He stared at the phone.

“I think you need to answer that,” Yuri said quietly. “I’ll give you some privacy,” he said as he stood up to go into the hallway.

JJ finally answered. He held the phone to his ear.

“JJ, are you there?”

Hearing Otabek’s words in Yuri’s voice just broke him further. He started to sob.

“JJ, please don’t cry. It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. I’m not ready to lose you.”

“You’re not losing me, why would you think that?”

“Yes, I am. You have your soulmate now. I know how much you care about Yuri. It was stupid of me to ever think that I had a chance with you.”

“I do care about Yuri. But not the way that I care about you. I’m not surprised that he’s my soulmate. I’ve felt a connection with him ever since I met him. But I’ve known him for over five years now and my feelings toward him have never once been anything but platonic. I’m in love with _you_ , JJ. This doesn’t change that.”

“But you’d be so much happier with him—”

“How? How could I be happier with him when you’ve already made me happier than I ever dreamed I could be? I can still be close friends with Yuri and keep my relationship with you. Soulmates don’t have to be romantically involved. I promise, you’re the one I want to be with. It doesn’t matter what the universe tries to tell me to do. I can make my own decisions. I choose you. I always choose you.”

JJ sniffled. “Are you sure? I want you to be happy.”

“I’m already happy. I love you.”

“Me too. But it’s really hard to say that when you sound like an angry Russian child.”

Otabek laughed. “He’s eighteen today, I don’t think you can call him a child.”

JJ smiled anxiously. “I guess I’ll…see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Are you sure you’re okay now? You still sound a bit upset.”

JJ willed his voice to relax. “I’m fine.”

Otabek sighed. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow. I love you.”

“Bye.”

JJ wanted to feel better after talking to Otabek, but this situation had happened to people before. Everyone always thought they could work through it, but it never worked. He couldn’t help but picture Otabek slowly realizing that his feelings for Yuri went deeper than he thought. He’d break up with JJ, get together with Yuri, and at their wedding Otabek would laugh about how he used to think he could just ignore his soulmate. JJ would become just a funny anecdote at parties. He pulled his knees to his chest, sitting on the bed and trying not to think about the worst.

About ten minutes later, Yuri came back into the room. “Hey,” Yuri said. “I just got off the phone with Otabek….He told me what you two talked about.”

JJ just sat there, staring at his knees.

“Before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that I still hate you. You’re a huge asshole. But for some reason, Otabek sees something in you. So I’ll be ‘nice,’ but only because he’s my friend—”

“Sure, your ‘friend,’” JJ muttered.

Yuri sighed and sat on the bed a few feet from JJ. “Look, I know it must suck to find out that your boyfriend’s soulmate is someone else. But Otabek’s telling the truth about wanting to stay with you. Yes, Otabek and I are really close, and we talk to each other a lot, but during most of our conversations he never shuts up about you. It’s really annoying. You’re having a hard time believing it right now, but he really does love you, for some insane reason. And I’m honestly not looking for a romantic relationship with him. I, um, kinda suspected that he was my soulmate, but I’ve really never felt that way toward him. I’m not gonna be a homewrecker. I want my soulmate to be happy, and it’s disgustingly obvious that the way for him to be truly happy is for him to be with you.”

JJ looked up at him. “You really mean that? You’re sure this is what you both want?”

Yuri rolled his eyes. “If I was the one he wanted to be with, why would he have called your phone first?”

He _did_ have a point. And Otabek sounded genuine on the phone. “Okay. …Thank you.”

“Ew. Don’t make this weird. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna take this opportunity to drive your boyfriend’s motorcycle while he’s still thousands of miles away and can’t stop me.”

“…Can I ride it when you’re done?”

Yuri actually smiled at him. “Please. Then maybe he’ll kill you instead of me.”

JJ smiled, too. “It can be my birthday present to you.”

“Yeah, whatever—oh, and don’t you dare text any weird shit to Otabek while I’m gone. He’s using my phone and I don’t wanna read anything gross when I get home.”

 _Ooh_. “Whatever you say, Yuri-chan.”

Yuri glared at him and stormed out of the room. JJ decided to call Otabek again. He picked up on the first ring.

“He has your name in his phone as ‘Asshole,’ by the way.”

“And hello to you, too.”

Otabek laughed. “So, how are you doing?”

“I’m better. Yuri actually _helped_ me. It was weird. But nice. Can you hurry up and come home, though?”

“I wish I could, but we have to wait one day,” Otabek sighed. “I’m already bored here.”

JJ smirked. “You could send out a bunch of weird stuff from Yuri’s phone.”

“…I may or may not have already texted Mila a few times.”

JJ giggled. “Gosh, I love you.”

“I love you, too. More than anything in the world.”

“I know.” And he did.

“So, where did Yuri run off to, anyway?”

“Well, he definitely didn’t ride off on your bike—”

“JJ!”

JJ just laughed. It was actually turning out to be a pretty good day.

**Author's Note:**

> And with that, I’m finally done with my JJBek week fics! This was so much fun to participate in, and I had so much fun reading what everyone else wrote as well! Thanks to everyone who took the time to read any of my fics! <3


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